Source of picture: www.turkeytravel.com By John Richardson THE economic crisis continues to force the global chemicals industry to think on its feet due to, among many other things, persistently tight credit in some regions. China has also become even more of an important market with every rumour and counter-rumour about levels of demand there […]
Asian Chemical Connections
What’s next for Reliance?
By Malini Hariharan Reliance Industries appears to have hit the end of the road in its quest for LyondellBasell which has filed its own restructuring plan, rejecting a $14.5bn Reliance offer. LyondellBasell has said the Reliance offer was not “sufficiently valuable to abandon” its amended reorganisation plan. “The proposal…did not assure a higher overall value […]
SEA Chemicals Need To Learn From The Past
By John Richardson THE whinging is getting almost unbearable in Southeast Asia over the Asean-China Free-Trade Agreement (ACFTA). The deal was under discussion for EIGHT years and yet chemicals and polymer producers and customers seem to have left it until after-the-fact to start raising objections. Indonesian industry association representatives have gone as far as to […]
M&As – value creation or destruction?
By Malini Hariharan The current slowdown in M&As is perhaps for the best as according to a recent report by Alembic Global Advisors the chemical industry has a track record of value destroying M&A activity. The study, which looked at deals of over $500m since 1990, evaluated M&As on stock performance, return on capital, operating […]
China – An Opportunity And Threat
Source of picture: Dachangplastic.com By John Richardson WHAT a difference ten years have made in the plastics processing industry, according to a Southeast Asian converter who sees China’s machinery=manufacturing prowess as an opportunity and threat. “Ten years ago I considered buying a process machine from the US for $300,000 but it was just […]
Asia’s Polyester Producers Get Greedy
By John Richardson THE current glum mood in the Asian fibre intermediates chain is in stark contrast to the optimism in polyolefin and other petrochemical markets. A broad-based price rally has occurred following the end of the Chinese New Year (CNY) holidays belying fears, for the time being at least, that China’s credit tightening will […]
Time to get aggressive
By Malini Hariharan LyondellBasell’s board is reported to have rejected Reliance Industries’ revised $14.5bn buyout offer. The rejection is not surprising as LyondellBasell is said to have valued itself at $15.5bn in its restructuring plan. Reliance still has room to up its offer although financial analysts are worried that a high-priced deal would not be […]
It helps to have the right partner
By Malini Hariharan And Sumitomo Chemical has discovered this. The company recently said that PetroRabigh, its joint venture with Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia, has managed to secure fresh ethane allocation of 30m scf of ethane for a second phase of projects. Ethane is running short in Saudi Arabia and getting an allocation, even a […]
Jurgen Talks A lot Of Sense
Source of picture: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/ By John Richardson GROWTH in Europe isn’t going to return to 2008 levels before 2012, said BASF CEO Jurgen Hambrecht on the release of the German diversified chemical giant’s financial results for last year.“ Overall, there are no signs of a self-sustaining, long-term recovery. We are still […]
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